


Safe From Harm

by LaughingThalia



Series: Orville Coda [8]
Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Episode: s02e02 Primal Urges, F/M, Leadership, Planet Destruction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 15:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17686109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: --"Make a life out there with Nathius. A beautiful life among the stars.”-----“All the days we'll never have.”-----“Your heart is full of the days we did. That's what you take with you.”--...--They didn't get to take much with them when Annihilation hit.--





	Safe From Harm

Being First Minister of a dying civilisation on a planet that was shaking itself apart and being eaten by its own sun was stressful. She and past leaders had done everything to keep the Nyxians alive, they'd gone underground, they'd shut themselves away and they'd set up a broadcasting system on the very slim chance that there was something else out there that could save them and then something had.

 

When Captain Ed Mercer's voice had come over the radio Minister Hallan Theece had wanted to cry, never mind the mispronunciation of her name and the very real lack of any knowledge about who these people and their Union were. They were saved!

 

When the pod had landed and she had laid her eyes on aliens for the first time she was stunned. Some kind of robotic being and a sturdy brown creature all had ridges and an impassive facial expression. At least she had thought it was impassive until she'd said goodbye to her husband and her little baby boy for the last time.

 

“ _You could have included yourself, you're the first Minister.”_

 

She loved her husband, more than anything, but he couldn't understand the responsibility she felt. It was _because_ she was first officer that she couldn't include herself because if she was chosen that would mean one of her subjects, people she had been tasked with protecting, would die in her place. It had been a punch to the gut when their planet had shaken itself to utter destruction and the aliens had said they could only take 30. She heard the two arguing about how to best pick survivors, about picking the smartest and the most 'valuable' to society but she could not in good conscience condemn _children_ to death, maybe she was being selfish, after all her own child was amongst those saved.

 

“ _You know that would be wrong.”_

 

Theece liked to think herself a fair leader but she wondered what she would have done if her son, Nathius, hadn't been chosen. Would she have rigged the draw? Asked someone to swap? Forced him on the pod so there was 31 people instead of 30 risking everyone else by putting them over capacity? There was no way she would have let him perish. She's glad she didn't have to find out.

 

She hopes those of them still left behind didn't think she had cheated, didn't think she had cheated them.

 

“ _Make a life out there with Nathius. A beautiful life, among the stars.”_

 

She's glad Nathius won't be alone. Glad har husband will be safe with the Union, even if she's not there with them. She wonders if Nathius will grow up hating that she put everyone else above their family, she wonders if her husband will.

 

When they leave its like her heart is burning up in their sun instead of their planet.

 

“ _ **All the days we'll never have.”**_

 

She can see their ship take off although she can't even hear it taking off over the sound of annihilation. She can feel the planet shake. The gravity of their sun sucking them in, the heat scorching the surface. She wasn't old enough to remember what the surface world had been like but she'd heard stories, seen pictures. She hoped Nathius would be able to see trees, and plants and animals. She hoped Nathius would be able to look up at his new son and not feel fear. She hoped Nathius would remember that Hallan loved him.

 

They can't take much with them, there’s no space. She doesn't want Nyxia and all its culture to be forgotten. She had given her husband the Nyxian archives, made him promise to help the Union understand their planet, made him promise to make sure the remaining Nyxians stayed safe.

 

They can't take much with them but at least they can take their memories with them.

 

“ _Your heart is full of the days we did._ That's _what you take with you.”_

 


End file.
